| Abstract: |
In a preliminary work on the geology of the area situated immediately North of Luang-Prabang (Laos), Counillon (1896)had divided the observed succession of strata into five "zones." In the fourth "zone", composed of continental beds, he had discovered in particular the partial skull of a dicynodont which he though to be Early Triassic in age. A recent survey of the same region led to the discovery, in Counillon's fourth "zone", of additional fossil material including reworked coral fragments, plant remains, amphibian bones, and several dicynodont skulls. This material has not been fully studied yet, but it could already be established that the dicynodonts belong to at least two different species of the genus Dicynodon. Dicynodon is a Late Permian, terrestrial form, with a cosmopolitan, Pangaean distribution: it is well represented in South Africa
and known also in Zambia, in Tanzania, in Scotland, in Russia (Cisuralia) and in China (Xinjiang). Its presence in Laos, on the northwestern edge of the Indochina block, proves that Indochina was not isolated from other land masses during the Late Permian. Further studies of the fossil flora and fauna of the Luang-Prabang area are expected to provide more detailed palaeobiogeographical informations.
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